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hogs, goats or what?

Started by bigred1951, September 10, 2015, 09:22:39 PM

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bigred1951

I have a couple acres of land in the bottom behind the house. 3/4 of it rough cleared the rest is woods and brush. I've been thinking about fencing it in and putting some goats in to keep it cleaned Up. I'm also wanting to get female and a male to breed and sell the little ones to make some money and help pay for feed and everything. Now I'm starting to think about hogs to. Not enough room for cattle. So what would be easier to raise and sell and make the most money.  What ever it is ill probably keep one out to fatten and slaughter for meat. People usually ask well do I want meat or milk. I just want to try to make a little money.

POSTON WIDEHEAD

Quote from: bigred1951 on September 10, 2015, 09:22:39 PM
What ever it is ill probably keep one out to fatten and slaughter for meat.

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bigred1951

Don't worry I say old goat meat be pretty tough haha

Pine Ridge

You'll need a good fence to keep them goats in, i don't have any but my neighbors had about 20 of them a few years ago. They were out more than they were in ! Good luck with whichever you choose.
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Don_Papenburg

Pigs like to rout around for things to eat . they will dig up a lot of small vegetation . keep them in small paddocks and move them when they have it tilled up good.  might want to run agoat or two before or with the pigs.  A ham made from a pig will taste better than any old goat meat.
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scleigh

I'd go with goats. I have 3 Boer goats, they're just pets but do a good job of keeping things clean. They also bring good money at the local small animal sale.

kensfarm

I go w/ turkeys.. maybe some chickens for some egg money. 

SLawyer Dave

Chickens are pretty *DanG easy to raise.  Can make good money off the eggs, and if you have the room and desire, raising the pullets for meat birds can also turn a nice profit.  I keep between 6 to 12 layers and average almost an egg a day per bird.  Eggs here in California, (due in part to bird flu and the new "no cage" requirement), are running $4 to 6 dollars a dozen in the supermarkets.  I've seen "organic farm fresh eggs", like I raise going for up to $7 per dozen.  Feed costs me about $1.50 per dozen, so good profit margin.  I give away all of my extra eggs, (well, I should say my adult children think I raise the extra ones for them), but even so, I figure I am saving enough just on not buying eggs to make it worth while.

My secretary, (a self professed "crazy chicken lady"), who got me into keeping chickens, has hundreds of different ducks, chickens, guinea fowl, geese, and turkeys.  She sells eggs, pullets, layers, chicks, pets and does custom breeding.  She also has small herds of sheep and goats, and a couple of horses.  The only animals she actually makes money on are the birds.  So again, I think you need to figure out "how much time and energy" you want to put into having such barnyard animals, and how much of your drive is based on them generating income for you.  The bigger the animal, the more the feed bill, the more the vet bills, the more investment you have in each one.

I had one of my 9 month old layers die this week.  No idea why.  It was a "ahh shucks" moment.   I can replace that layer for $20, or buy a chick for $2.  Not a biggie either way.  A 9 month old sheep or goat, that's a much bigger loss.  So do some research, talk to local people already involved in such small operations, (or big operations if that is where you want to build to), and figure out what niche will work best for you.

Good luck

Warped

Mmmmm  goat steaks,,,,,,,,

In the last few years I know quite a few people, one was my brother, who got into layers. I think one still has some, and two friends recently finished their coops, no birds yet and I believe one already lost interest!
  You sure can tell the difference from store bought eggs....
Good with the rough stuff and rough with the good stuff

Ianab

The Boer (meat) or Saanen (milk) are a lot easier to keep contained than regular goats that are generally related to Houdini. You do have some issues with parasites if they are contained in a small area though, and they are not as hardy as your regular ole goat. Up side is the offspring are going to be more saleable.

I suspect the chickens are probably a simpler option as you can run a lot of them on an acre of land. Predators might be an issue though, but if you can lock them in a house at night that's reduced. Chickens soon learn to come for food in the pen in the evening, and the ones that don't get removed from the breeding pool.
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Magicman

If the proposed fenced area is close to home or upwind of the prevailing wind, I would avoid pigs.  Also the area will soon be completely devoid of all ground vegetation.
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WV Sawmiller

   It is going to take a good web wire fence to keep goats. Electric and barb wire is a joke to them. Hogs are probably worse. I had goats clear about 10 acres for me. Need a good old nanny who won't get out so when the young ones do (I promise they will get out some) they will come back to her as they are very social critters.

    Goats are browsers and will eat the roses and vines before grass. They will clean everything within reach of them standing on their hind legs, can be bent over or leaning less then 60 degrees (I.e. Don't park your newly restored '67 Mustang convertible in the pasture). If you are going to eat them band the young billys or a young nanny is good eating if you don't get too personally attached to them. They aren't bad to cross water if you have a decent stream with no fallen logs over it.

   Where they cleared out the multiflora roses and brush on my place they let the sunlight in and grass is growing and my horse and mule now maintain it without any more goat help. Good luck.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

IndyIan

We keep our small goat herd contained with electric fence.  5 strands near the barn and between them and the fruit trees, down to one strand at the far end of the pasture between them and the woods and coyotes where they don't want to go anyways.
We had purebred boer and they are a bit delicate and dumb for a goat, but meaty.  Now they are mostly boer/dairy crosses with a couple commercial dairy ones.
I like them better than our pigs, and they come with handles just the right height to haul them around with if necessary.  The meat is milder than lamb, but a bit stringyer, and my wife has a feta cheese goat burger recipe that is miles ahead of any beef burger I've ever had.
They can strip the bark off of almost any tree under 1' dbh though, but some chicken wire is enough of a deterrent to keep them off trees you want to keep.
Keeping a buck is a different matter, and if you can, just rent one when needed.  We had one for a while and he was more trouble than he was worth.

thecfarm

I guess I had dumb luck with our goats,but we treated them like a dog too and we had 3 that we would let loose and they would hang around us better then the dog did. I just had a slab fence for them and I think they got out 3 times. Once when I forgot to lock the gate,once when I was making the pen bigger and once when I was trying out a idea for a new gate. We had a total of 8 goats,2 than 3,than 2.
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NH-Murph

I have become a big fan of pigs.  For all of you turned off by the rooting and wiping out vegetation like I was, I would urge you to do some research on a relatively "new" breed of pigs called Idaho Pasture Pigs.  They are a cross of 3 old world breeds (Durock, Berkshire and Kunekune) specifically bred to live on grass pasture.  They still require a bit of grain, but much less than other pigs not on pasture.  They stay pretty small (400-450lbs fully grown) and are extremely friendly and personable.  We have one right now, but have our breeding stock reserved for the spring.  There are only a few registered breeders around, but I think they are going to significantly gain in popularity in a short time.  They are the perfect homestead pig if you have any pasture land.  We are very excited to become registered breeders next year!  We recently visited a farm that breeds them to learn all we could about them, and they had been in their pastures since April, with green grass still everywhere.  Idaho Pasture Pigs... Check 'em out!

beenthere

What is the best weight for butchering them?   450 lbs seems a bit on the heavy side for the best eating.

I have a brother in law moving from IA to NH and he says he is going to raise a new breed of hog. But don't know what that breed is called.
south central Wisconsin
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NH-Murph

They are harvested at around 150-170 pounds, typically.  We are going to breed our IPP boar (who isn't registered) to our durock/Berkshire sow for some spring piglets with the hope that these ones still do some rooting, as I will have a few acres to stump, and I got a piece of pipe and some corn that says those pigs will get the stumps loosened enough to yank them with the tractor somewhat readily by harvest season.  As soon as I know the sow takes, we are going to process the boar so we can try the meat.  It is supposedly second to none. 


 

Here's Wally still in quarantine at about 30lbs.  He is happier now that he is turned out during the day.  He also electric fence trained in 2 days.  Note the very short snout.  They turn up as they grow.  Not conducive to rooting.  Hoping to breed them in December or January.  Might have to make little Wally a ramp to get 'er done. 

drobertson

Goats are gaining in popularity around here, they can be a bear to keep in at times, but do well with clearing off brush, hogs are good eating too, but make pretty good messes if not housed, which can be costly. I've sawn near 10,000 bdft for a local hog farmer.  He had them completely off the ground.
only have a few chain saws I'm not suppose to use, but will at times, one dog Dolly, pretty good dog, just not sure what for yet,  working on getting the gardening back in order, and kinda thinking on maybe a small bbq bizz,  thinking about it,

WV Sawmiller

Indy,

    You're raising kinder, gentler goats than we had. First ones I bought one got free when we were loading them and ran back through a 10 strand electric fence with strands about 6" apart. Acted like nothing there. Of course boer and milk goats tend to be better natured than Alpine and such IMO.

    Whatever works for you is fine. A few well trained gentle goats go a long way to keeping the flock where they are supposed to stay. Ours stripped and girdled fruit trees and some others to kill them. They are great at clearing brush.

    My wife raised pigs as a kid and hates them so they were never an option on our place. Horse, mule, cows, goats, deer, coons, possums, rabbits, skunks, dogs, and cats all are fine as pets but no pigs if you ask her.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

IndyIan

The trick is to get goats from a farm that uses electric fences.  We got one doe that needed some training, which was basically putting her on a leash and pushing her into the fence and not letting her run through when she/me got zapped...  She didn't like me for a year but she stayed in after that.  All the kids get themselves zapped in the first day and never seem to forget.

WV Sawmiller

Ian,

   Glad that works for you. When I was a kid my dad bought a woods cow from a guy near us that had never been near an electric fence so he tied it out close to the fence where she could get zapped without running away. Watched a while then left it and returned that afternoon to find she had gotten the foot hung in the rope, fell on the fence and never recovered. We lost her and the calf she had had the day before.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

landscraper

Quote from: Magicman on September 11, 2015, 08:35:57 AM
If the proposed fenced area is close to home or upwind of the prevailing wind, I would avoid pigs.  Also the area will soon be completely devoid of all ground vegetation.

Quote from: NH-Murph on September 11, 2015, 09:34:33 PM
I have become a big fan of pigs.  For all of you turned off by the rooting and wiping out vegetation like I was, I would urge you to do some research on a relatively "new" breed of pigs called Idaho Pasture Pigs.  They are a cross of 3 old world breeds (Durock, Berkshire and Kunekune) specifically bred to live on grass pasture.  They still require a bit of grain, but much less than other pigs not on pasture.

I raise tamworth and berkshire pigs, and they are good grazers, as long as you have plenty of good grass.  I used to have hampshires and yorkshires and they would root up good grass right away, had to get rid of them.  Right now I have 5 sows 400+ lbs each, 2 gilts 100lbs each, and 1 boar 500+ lbs all in separate paddocks +/- 2 acres total and they are not getting ahead of the grass, it's still pretty heavy to be the end of summer.  The manure load is spread out and really is barely noticeable.  We keep a fallow paddock or two all the time in case one field gets grazed down hard I can move them to greener pastures.  While I don't follow all of his politics, there's a guy named Joel Salatin that raises a lot of pastured hogs and he has some interesting ideas about pigs on grass instead of grain.

I have been to a few farms where they feed hogs on slop or mash on the ground in a small area, and I can see why there is a stereotype about hogs and the smell and the rooting.   I know a guy who finishes hogs on a wood floor, and I sold two to a guy who finished on a concrete pad.  Different strokes.  I find giving them plenty of room is the easiest for me and they seem to thrive.

There are no big commercial hog operations around here that I know of, just small producers like me.  We produce weanlings for a bigger farm-to-table operation, and we slaughter several a year to eat and sell.
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